Welcome to the 1st annual Guildford Banjo Jamboree website ! Last modified 11 August 2005 with some corrections to the photo page, we'll get around to fixing up all the photo links eventually.

Well, The inaugural Guildford Banjo Jamboree turned out to be all we hoped for, glorious weather, a great crowd and no appreciable hassles. If you weren't there we're going to give a bit of a rave and put up a few pictures just to make sure you realise what you missed. If you were there, you might enjoy flipping through the pictures and just reminiscing about the great time you had.

I reckon we had about fifty or sixty pickers over the weekend, not to mention the numerous fiddle, mandolin, ukulele, guitar, double bass and other pluckers who attended. All up we sold about 300 tickets, pretty evenly split between day and weekend tickets, but various sources agree that there were a good 300 people about for the Sunday feature concert alone.

The picture below includes all those pickers who ambled down to the Big Tree at about noon on Sunday to be a part of the 'Massed Banjos' photo opportunity. I counted 43 pickers in this photo and I reckon there were more to come !

The Jamboree workshops proved to be quite popular with good attendances all 'round. The chalk board concerts presented some great local talent and the two tune pick-off event was quite a hot contest, although the winner was indisputably that great picker from down-under down-under (Tasmania), Fred Pribac. Fred was awarded the prestigious perpetual trophy which will has been inscribed in his honour and will be on display (alongside a copy of his certificate) in the Guildford Hotel for the next twelve months.

The Gospel Singalong down on the banks of the Beautiful Loddon River was very popular with The Turnarounds keeping the crowd in full voice for over an hour ! The banjo Joke Breakfasts were not as well attended as we'd hoped but settled comfortably in front of the Loddon Tea Rooms instead of the Big Tree Park as originally programmed. I guess most people had enjoyed the previous evening's activities to the extent that a 9:00am start was not a desirable option.

Salvi's Curry van catered to the crowd throughout the weekend and proved to be very popular. Tex Turkey's T-Shirts were also in great demand, selling out early and eventually forcing Tex to resort to printing the Jamboree design on just about any item of clothing presented to him.

The Jamboree owes its success to the generous contributions of time and expertise from the various performers, presenters and volunteers. The organisers wish to gratefully thank all those who made this weekend such a memorable time for us all.

The Guildford Banjo Jamboree is grateful for the contributions made by a number of organisations, businesses and individuals in order to support us. We ask our supporters to support the businesses that support the Jamboree ! Most of our benefactors are listed on our "acknowledgements" page.

If you've got any questions or suggestions about the Guildford Banjo Jamboree, please don't hesitate to drop us a line ! We'll do our best to respond to all messages.

2004 Programme: What did those lucky enough to attend see ??